Cogne early ice

 I never have been that early in Cogne for climbing ice... Although, we were not exactly sure that there would be ice at all. Due to working visit to Switzerland and a lot of snow on the northern side of the Alps Bernd and I decided to give it a try. At least we could do some dry tooling in the valley. 

After a nice drytooling day between Cogne and Lillaz we spotted the Loie waterfall and expected it to be climable, and indeed, next morning after 1 hour ascent to the foot of the fall we were sure that we would hit ice this trip - fantastic.

Next day we walked to Patri, because that waterfall usually builts up very well. And indeed, it was climbable. The fourth day we went to Valmiana, although, only rated WI3, the first pitch was still thin and not chopped at all, very nice climbing and last part even in the sun!!!

 

Loie:

 

 

 Patri

 

 

 

 

 

Valmiana

Drytooling

Ettringen, new challenges

 Some new challenges in Ettringen: I artif rope soloed the Kelle to try it on tope rope. I met a few nice guys and spent the weekend climbing together. Besides Kelle I also toproped the Hulk (VII+), Flirtin with Desaster (VIII+) in de sector Kühlschrank and in Mordor Der Strand (VIII-), Hell Raiser (VIII-) and Minas Tirith (VII).

 

Ettringen Seepferdchen and Kelle (VIII)

 Two nice climbing days in Ettringen. After climbing some VII and VII+ routes we tried some harder stuff. Seepferdchen (VIII+) and Kelle des Knopfgiessers (VIII) are two amazing routes in the Ettringer Lay. The first one is situated at the Dürener Wand and is very hard right from the beginning. After a few jam moves the characteristic S-shape finger crack asks for some hard lay backing to continu up to the second half of the route that requires thin hands and ringlocks. Saturday I managed to climb the lower part without a block (in toprope) and thereafter I figured out the crux move in the upper crack.

 

On saturday we toproped Kelle. This route is about 20m and starts with a really cool finger crack up to and below the bulge. From here the route starts with thin hands and after the bulge the angle of the wall eases and the crack is becoming more hands and the upper part again requires hard fingerjams. Really cool.

Ailefroide, Ecrins

 A week of climbing in Ailefroide. Instead of an alpine route in the higher mountains we only could climb some routes in the valley -due to the rainy and unstable weather.

Frankenjura

 Marieke and I went to the Frankenjura, it has been years, since we visited the area for the last time. We go there for the climbing but also for the German food and beer.

We enjoyed the days of rain while cycling and hiking and in between we had enough climbing opportunities. Two trips to Bayreuth and Bamberg were really worthwile as well.

Ettringen Spring 2021

 Some nice climbing days in Ettringen. At the third day the VII-routes like Meister Proper, Purple Haze en Brust mit Links felt pretty good again. After months of climbing absentism I was totally happy.